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Sunday, September 27, 2009

A Brooklyn Wedding

Yesterday was the long-awaited wedding of my dear friend. (I might have mentioned once or twice that I was making a reception dress for her.) From start to finish, it was a lovely day.Here I am waiting for the train, dress in tow. I had planned on wearing my red satin sheath, but I chickened out and ended up buying a new, more casual dress at the last minute. I realized I might feel a bit self-conscious wearing red satin in the afternoon. (Do you notice that I'm wearing a full skirt that hits well above my knees, a style that I railed about just a couple days ago? I'm such a hypocrite!)

The flower girls (the bride's fabulous nieces) performed their duties with aplomb. The pianist was playing "The Rainbow Connection," and I got a little choked up.

Luckily, I recovered in time to do my reading of Sonnet 116 during the ceremony.

The lighting of the unity candle. Here's my friend in her formal ceremony gown. Doesn't she look lovely? Her veil had little sparkly bits that glimmered in the candlelight.

After the ceremony, we had some time to kill. Luckily, the Brooklyn Arts Festival was happening under the bridge, so my husband and I meandered about for a while. There was a couple walking around in knitted camouflage full bodysuits. Artsy, huh?

I thought my date looked quite handsome.

It was a chilly day, so I cozied up in a wrap. Did you know that I wear spectacles? I always try to avoid having them on in pictures, but that gets a little tiresome after a while.

After dinner, the bride was ready to slip into something more comfortable.

Ta-da!

(You'll notice that her niece also slipped into something more comfortable, which included jammies, a binky, and her froggy.)

And here I am, next to my muse.

What a day! I just love weddings, don't you?

P.S. As for the dress I bought, I loved the fit and look of it - especially the really cool corset detailing, including laces up the back. But I wasn't happy with the quality. The boning (which was rigilene) tore out of the fabric - at the top of the bodice on one side, and on the bottom on the other side. This meant I had boning sticking me in my right breast and left hip, simultaneously. This was quite uncomfortable, as you can imagine. I've made my own dresses with rigilene boning before and have never had this problem. You can bet I'll be writing a complaint letter to Anthropologie!

28 comments:

The dress you made for your friend came out wonderful and she looks smashing in it. Great job! I liked the dress you wore, but I do kind of wish you had worn the red sheath just because it's gorgeous and you made it.

Holy cats! I just went to the Anthropologie website and looked at that dress. If you paid anywhere close to full price, even half price, you certainly need to get a full refund on such a shoddily made and expensive dress.

Congratulations to the bride and to you: your glasses choice is superb (having been doomed to avoid contact lenses for a week, it matters a LOT to me): they really compliment the shape of your face.And I love your hairdo and these two poofy dresses, be they knee-length or not! It must have been interesting to work with boning on this project. Lingerie and its techniques is really the part of sewing I'd dream to develop!

Your muse looks wonderful! I love the tulle wrap/gathering on top along with the ruffle at the hem. It turned out beautiful, and you should be so proud, especially on the quick turn around! You are now a professional seamstress!

And where do I begin with you--love the updo, love the glasses, love the dress (too bad about the quality!), and you and your husband are a dang cute together!

I agree about the glasses - they do look rather studious- which is the smart girl impression that I have of you. By the way that is a positive thing! What a lovely fall wedding, and the dress you made for her is simply FAB. Thanks for letting us take part in all of this.

I completely agree that the glasses suit you - they look really cute!! The dress you made for your friend is beautiful - I know you were beaming with pride as she wore it!I am sorry you didn't wear your red sheath dress, I was looking forward to seeing it in action! The dress you wore is cute, though. Sorry about the poor quality. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case so often now.Looks like you and your husband had a fun time!

2) The dress you made for your friend looks fabulous on her and rivals her ceremony gown.

3) It is ridiculous for the boning on the Anthropologie dress to tear out on the the first wearing. I agree with others who say you should demand a refund. While I really like the chevrons, I believe I have seen you do chevrons just as well, and in many ways I think that a number of the dresses you have made could have been better than the one you bought.

I tried that Anthro dress on yesterday! I love the style, but it was cut so small. I wear a 10 or 12 in everything else I have from Anthro, but I couldn't even get the 12 zipped up all the way. So, I guess, I'm glad it didn't fit. When I put it on, I did notice that the lining (bodice only, none on the skirt!) was kinda' thin and wonky. Definitely take it back! They should refund you! If they won't, raise some holy hell!

So, I took the dress back to Anthro today and they gave me a full refund. The other options they gave me were replacing it with a new one, or letting me keep the dress and refunding 30% of the cost. If they had offered 50%, I would have kept it and repaired it myself, but 30% just wasn't enough incentive. Plus now I have more fabric money!

SLP, I used Simplicity 2959, view C for my friend's dress.

Thanks for the compliments on my glasses!

A Sewn Wardrobe: the wrap is also from Anthro. Can you tell it's my favorite store? I really need to try branching out, I think!